Ribs
by StoryQuipster
Summary: And maybe now, he's even more concerned for that bastard. Anyone who's important to her is important to him.


**Ribs**

* * *

Gray nearly slices Juvia's chest open during training one day and he _freaks_.

It's been happening a lot of times lately and he knows that it's not because he's getting better at fighting. Ever since he made Juvia promise to take him seriously in fights, she's been scary good during their sparring sessions; lithe and nimble, dodging and countering his attacks with impeccable precision. And she's been doing really well, up until Saturday last week, when she failed to block an attack that should've been easy to block. She got a nasty cut on her right arm because of it. It's healing well and stuff because of her water powers, but obviously it still bothers him. And the day after that, she clumsily dodged a couple of his ice blades and got a bruise on her knee when she awkwardly landed on the ground. Which is really weird, because she's usually so _graceful _when it comes to these things.

So yeah, he knows that his hits are only coming in because she's been really distracted.

"Juvia!" he says as he moves towards her, nearly slipping on the ice.

The front of her dress is ripped so he can see a bit of her bra. He's trying not to though because things have been really weird between the two of them. She's been a bit distant from him ever since the whole Silver-Keith incident and he hasn't been bothering to try and fix that, because even though he kind of has this _thing _for her, he still has END to worry about.

"It's okay, Gray-sama, Juvia's fine," she says, even though she's wincing. The scar isn't too deep but he can still tell that it's pretty painful.

"Does it hurt? Let me see it," he says as kneels down. He wants to run a hand over her wound but that would involve touching her chest. And that really isn't really an option.

"Please don't worry about Juvia, Gray-sama," she anxiously says. "She got distracted and—"

"Yeah, I noticed. You've been out of it this past week. What's going on?" he says, brows creasing.

She tries to avoid the stern look in his eyes. "It's just that…Juvia just…"

He tips her chin upwards so she meets his eyes. "Look, you can't let this happen again, okay? This isn't the time for you to be daydreaming. You can't lose your focus. _Ever_. It could get you killed and if that happened—"

He abruptly stops, his chest tightening at the prospect.

He tries not to think about stuff like that but it still happens. A lot. She's important to him and really, she's the one person he can't stand to lose at this point.

"Juvia is so sorry, Gray-sama," she says, her chin quivering. "She's doesn't want to disappoint Gray-sama. She swears that she'll do better next time."

Her eyes are kind of glassy and her bottom lip is trembling and he just knows that she's about to cry which makes him feel really bad. He hates it whenever Juvia feels sad.

He sighs and cards his fingers through his hair. "No…it's okay. I'm…I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have been so stern with you. It's just that…I…I worry…and…"

He clears his throat. Whatever.

"Anyways, what's wrong? You've been acting weird these past few days," he tells her as he helps her up. He grabs the jacket he's discarded on the snow and hands it to her. It's a bit damp but at least it'll cover her wound (and chest) up and he won't have to keep focusing on her hair to keep from staring.

"The hanami festival's just finished. Lucy wrote an article about it," she quietly says as she wraps the jacket around her.

"Oh," he says. He knows that even though she's happy training with him, she still misses the guild. It's been really hard on her, since this is the second time she's experienced having her guild disband.

"Juvia just misses everyone, that's all," she says.

"I miss them too," he says.

Her lips part a little but then she looks away and immediately he can tell, that there's more that she wants to say.

* * *

The next day, he finds a plate full of toast and fried eggs and a pot full of coffee on the kitchen table, but no Juvia.

Which is really weird because usually, she gets up earlier than him to make breakfast and he always finds her waiting for him with this huge smile on her face in the mornings. But she's not here right now. And he knows that she's not in the bathroom or anywhere else because the cabin where they live in is small and you can literally hearing everything from any room in the house.

She's been doing that a lot though, going off somewhere and leaving him alone for breakfast every morning. He knows that she does it because she wants to check out the news before they start training. She's been strangely fixated with it lately—everyday she brings in about five different newspapers and spends most of her afternoons curled up in her favorite couch, just diligently reading through them. She has also stopped trying to drag him to walks around the town in the evenings; most of the time, she just spends the rest of her day after training, holed up in her room, knitting or reading or whatever.

It bothers him not just because she's acting all weird but also because he misses her. He never gets to hang out with her anymore, outside of training and lunch and he's been meaning to talk to her about it but the opportunity never really came up.

He hears the front door opening and looks up and finds her entering the kitchen. Her hair's in a swishy ponytail and she's wearing an over-sized sweater with a really cute bunny embroidered on the front. As usual, she's got five newspapers bunched up in her arms.

"Good morning, Gray-sama!" she cheerfully says as she takes a seat from across him.

"Hey. How's your wound? And have you eaten already?"

"Oh, it's fine. It's healing along nicely. And Juvia already ate."

"You seem happy this morning. Good news?" he says as he takes a huge bit out of his toast.

"Yes!" she enthusiastically says as she opens one of the newspapers and shows it to him. "Look! Juvia just read that Gajeel-kun and Lily-san recently saved a town near Motobu."

"That's great," Gray says. He knows that she's been keeping tabs on everyone else (the both of them are actually) but she pays closer attention to Gajeel. Gray thinks that she misses him the most out of everyone else.

"Speaking of Motobu," he says, clearing his throat. "I was thinking…you know…about today's training—"

"Oh, Juvia's so sorry! She knew that she came a bit late but she got carried away reading the news," she says, worried.

"Actually, I was thinking that we could skip training for a while and check out the Hanami festival in Motobu," Gray mumbles. "I mean, I know that Hanami season is over, like a month ago but Motobu is famous for its sakura trees and they usually bloom all year round."

It's a long way train ride down south, towards the borderlands of the North where the air is still cold, but not as frigid and they'll probably have to stay there for a day or two. To be honest, he doesn't really feel comfortable taking so many days off training. But Juvia's been a bit down lately and he knows that it's because she misses Fairy Tail. The guild usually goes sakura viewing every year and it's one of things she always used to look forward to. He's kind of hoping that cherry blossom viewing will cheer her up—Motobu doesn't have any rainbow sakuras like Magnolia, but the trees are still pretty nonetheless.

"Really?" she says, her eyes brightening. But then, she pauses, her lips pressing into a small frown. "But what about training? Juvia knows that Gray-sama needs to get stronger to defeat END."

"We could use the break," he shrugs. "And besides, you're in no condition to fight. It's only for a few days anyway—"

Juvia leaps forward and tackles him into a hug before he can finish. The two of them crash on to the floor, the toast flying off his hands and the coffee spilling.

"Waaah! A romantic weekend—"

"It's not like that—"

"Gray-sama is really too bold—"

"It's not a romantic weekend. We're going on a break—"

"Of course," she says, suddenly looking serious. A year ago, she probably would've just continued with whatever crazy scenario she was dreaming up. But now, she does this, retreats when he contradicts whatever she's saying. She's holding back on him, somehow and he'd be lying if he says that it doesn't bother him.

"Gray-sama is so kind!" Juvia says as she leans back, a wide smile on her face.

"Don't cling on to me for every little thing," he mumbles although he has this stupid grin on her face and he's giving her this affectionate little look that she doesn't miss.

* * *

During one of the stops along Motobu, Juvia gets off the train and tells him that she'll only be gone for a couple of minutes. He nods his head, tells her that he'll just go and buy them lunch and walks her out of the station, making sure to remind her not to lose her ticket. He's not too worried about her missing the train because the stops are extremely long (they can last for about fifteen to thirty minutes) and Juvia's told him that she's just going to an inn a couple of minutes away.

He buys two rice bowls from a lady pushing a cart around. When she asks him where his "girlfriend" is, he doesn't bother correcting her. He's figured out a long time ago that launching into the whole "We're not really together but we do live under the same roof and it's not weird at all because we just train together and stuff and everything is totally platonic" usually invites a lot of questions and weird looks. He's stopped caring about what people thought of them at around the same time everyone in the little town they live in started referring to them as "the lovely couple up the hill." And besides, having people think that they're together usually keeps idiots who try to flirt with her away, so he's not exactly complaining.

Juvia comes back moments later, a small frown on her face. When she meets his eyes, the corners of her lips tug upwards into a smile, but he can tell it's forced.

"What's wrong?" Gray says as he hands her a rice bowl and chopsticks.

"Oh, it's nothing," Juvia says as she takes a seat. She puts the paper bag she's been carrying around right next to her and starts poking her bowl with her chopsticks. "It's just that…Juvia just missed Gajeel-kun and Lily-san. They left just a few hours ago."

"You were planning to visit them?"

"Yes. Juvia got the address from the news article."

"Oh. Well, it's okay. I'm sure we'll be able to catch them some other time," Gray tells her.

"Gajeel-kun hasn't even been answering Juvia's letters," she petulantly says.

"You know he keeps moving. Maybe you sent it to the wrong address."

"Juvia made sure to write down the address he gave her in her last letter. And she also sent an express letter to the inn he was staying at so that he knows that Juvia's stopping by to see him," she says, her eyes downcast.

"Maybe the letter didn't get there in time. Some of those stupid express carriers lie," Gray says as he tries to comfort her. He really can't stand seeing her so sad.

"Maybe," she sighs.

"Look, there has to be a reason why he's not replying. I mean, I sent a couple of letters to Erza and Cana and it took them forever to reply because they were busy. I know it's sad but we're all living different lives now and sometimes, we just don't have time for each other," he gently tells her. His chest tightens because he really misses his friends, but at the same time he knows that he can't expect everyone to keep in touch.

"Gray-sama is right," Juvia dejectedly says.

"And hey, who knows? He might suddenly show up and visit again," he lightly says.

A couple of months back, Gajeel and Pantherlily had unexpectedly showed up in their cabin,with Gajeel saying that he got Juvia's last letter and that he wanted to see the "situation" for himself. He talked about how he heard that Gray and Juvia were living together and spent a good deal of time talking about how Gray didn't even ask for his permission or how the two of them were too young to be living under one roof. It took Juvia forever to explain to him that it wasn't like that and even then, Gajeel remained suspicious and went around the cabin to check out the distance from Juvia's room to Gray's. Also, Gajeel spent around fifteen minutes sniffing him, claiming that he just wanted to be sure that he wouldn't find Juvia's scent on Gray.

"Gray-sama is right!" she says, looking a little bit better. "Juvia shouldn't let this ruin our day!"

She's smiling at him but he's spent enough time with her to know that she's still not completely okay.

* * *

They check in at a small inn a few blocks away from where the sakura park is and ask for a room with two separate beds. The lady in the front desk gives them a weird look, like it's the strangest thing ever to see a guy and girl who seem like a couple ask for separate beds.

Which is, okay, a little weird.

To be honest, sometimes he finds himself thinking about these kinds of things. Like how it'll probably be easier if the two of them just you know, got together. They've spent almost a whole year with each other alone and it's gotten to the point where he knows all of her little quirks.

(And maybe he's kind of, a little in love with her.)

She hasn't been as affectionate or as over the top since that moment when he broke down in front of her, but he knows that she still loves him. She still tackles him into hugs or gets all distracted when he says something or spouts off weird crap about them getting married and having like, a million babies.

She's probably just acting that way because she still feels kind of bad for his killing his dad. And he's tried to tell her that he's really thankful for the fact that she did something he wasn't able to do, a lot of times. But he thinks that she's still upset because she's done something to hurt him and he understands that. He thinks that if situation were reversed, he'd probably feel the same way too.

But he still has the whole END thing and it's stupid, but he really doesn't want to start anything with her, when there's the possibility that he might you know, _die_. He's training and getting stronger and he's got a good chance of winning. But he's not naive enough to think that everything will be easy and that he's going to go into the fight with a 100% chance of making out of it alive.

Anyways, they drop their stuff in the inn and eat dinner at a small cafe from across the street. She still seems a bit down though and she's still carrying the paper bag around. He tries to cheer her up by buying her some ice cream but even that doesn't seem to work. When he talks about going to see the sakura trees and how the lanterns are usually so pretty at night, she just gives him a small smile, apologizes and says that she's tired. So they go and see a movie instead and then, call an early night in.

The next day, she's still pretty down and this time, he really can't take it anymore. The two of them are sitting underneath one of the sakura trees with some food they bought from the nearby convenience store. There are about five or seven families and couples surrounding them, and from the distance, he can hear some guy singing.

Juvia's toying with the hem of her sleeves, deep in thought. She's brought the paper bag she's been bringing around with her since yesterday and placed it right next to her.

"Okay. What's wrong?" Gray asks her.

"Eh?"

"What's wrong? You've been like this since yesterday," he says. "Aren't you…I mean don't you like watching the sakura trees?"

"Of course Juvia does! And she's so grateful that Gray-sama took the time off from training to take Juvia here. But…"

"What?" he says. "Are you still upset about missing Gajeel?"

Okay, so he didn't mean to sound as annoyed as he did.

It's just that, obviously he gets that they're best friends and it's natural for her to miss him and stuff. But it's been almost a year and she's never really been as hung up about it as today. Yeah, she talks to him about missing the guild from time to time but she's never really seemed to be as particularly sad about Gajeel being gone. And he thought that yesterday, they already sorted things out and were past that.

"It's just that…"Juvia mumbles as she looks at her lap. Her fingers play with the paper bag.

"It's just what?"

"It's just that…that…today's Gajeel-kun's birthday!"

"What?" Gray blankly says.

"Today's Gajeel-kun's birthday," she impatiently says.

He frowns. He doesn't remember today being Gajeel's birthday. In fact, now that he thinks about it, he doesn't remember much of everyone's birthdays. He remembers celebrating them. But he doesn't remember the dates, except for the birthdays of his really close friends like his teammates and Cana and Loke.

"I didn't know it was his birthday," he says, although the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that Gajeel's birthday usually falls a few weeks after the Hanami festival.

"It is! And well…Juvia was hoping to catch him in the town where she heard he was staying in but then…but then he was already gone and now she doesn't know where he is and…and then…she was hoping that he might've gone here to Motobu to check out the festival so that's why she's been bringing this around and…andit's not even fair because Juvia spent weeks tracking him down and even spent a longer time making him this beanie!" she says, her voice lacerating as she takes out a small, black and gray beanie from the paper bag.

Gray blinks at her, unsure of what to say.

So that's what she's been doing for the past week.

"And Juvia knows that Gajeel-kun got the letter and he's just ignoring Juvia to make her feel bad for not giving him a present when he gave her one!" she continues, crossing her arms and pouting like a petulant child.

"Juvia…he gave you a half eaten box of cake," he points out.

"He still gave her something!" she crossly says.

"Look, he wouldn't ignore you on purpose. He wouldn't do that. And I know it's hard…but…it's been a year and we've all gone on different paths and sometimes…sometimes it's hard to stay in touch. Even with the people who you thought you would always be friends with," he says.

"Juvia knows but…it's just that…Gajeel-kun is breaking his promise!"

"His what?"

She gives him this really sad look. "When Juvia first joined Fairy Tail, Gajeel-kun was really upset. See…when we were in Phantom Lord, we couldn't trust anybody else but each other and even though Gajeel-kun didn't say it out loud, Juvia knew that he saw her as one of his only true friends. And so when, Juvia went and joined Fairy Tail, Gajeel-kun was really mad and wouldn't talk to her for days because he thought that Juvia was leaving him. But then Juvia found him and convinced him to join Fairy Tail and told him that…that…"

She twists the beanie in her hands.

"That she couldn't be truly happy unless he was there with her. She couldn't join Fairy Tail knowing that Gajeel-kun would be so sad and lonely and…and…she guesses that if he didn't join, she would've felt like she was alone with no one to rely on," Juvia mumbles. "And now that the guild has disbanded and Gajeel-kun is all alone again…"

She looks at the sakura blossoms swaying against the wind. "Juvia doesn't want him to think that she's forgotten him."

A long stretch of silence passes between them.

"Juvia…you're a really good friend," Gray finally says.

Juvia blinks at him in confusion. "Eh?"

"And I'm sure Gajeel knows that. There's a reasonable explanation why he hasn't gotten your letter. Just you wait, he'll show up at our cabin—" He awkwardly clears his throat, painfully aware of the insinuations that come with saying our cabin. "—sniffing me and checking out our rooms."

Juvia giggles. "Maybe…Gray-sama is right."

"And he has Pantherlily with him and didn't he say that he sometimes meets up with Levy to do jobs together?" he continues.

"Yes…Gajeel-kun did say that."

"Look, ever since you guys have joined Fairy Tail, you didn't have to rely on just each other anymore. You have us now. And even though the guild has disbanded, you should know that we can always still count on each other, no matter how far apart we may be," he says, feeling more and more ridiculous at the progressively sappy things he is saying.

"And do you think Gajeel-kun knows that?" she asks him.

"He's a Fairy Tail mage. Of course he does," he says. "You don't have to worry. You're not his only friend anymore."

To be honest, he's a little jealous of their friendship and their closeness but he understands. From what Juvia has told him, Phantom Lord was a tough guild and it was next to impossible to find someone who you could completely trust. So meeting someone who's actually there for you and stuff must be pretty amazing. And he can understand why Juvia and Gajeel care so much about each other. When you're friends with someone during the times when you had no one else, the kind of bond you have must run deep.

"Gray-sama is right," Juvia says after a while. She grins at him, the first genuine smile he's seen in a long while. "Gajeel-kun has other people to care for him now."

"Yeah, like me."

"You care about Gajeel-kun?"

"I guess so," he mumbles, embarrassed. And maybe now, he's even more concerned for that bastard. Anyone who's important to her is important to him.

"Gray-sama?"

"Yeah?"

"Juvia knows you said that even though Fairy Tail has disbanded and we've all gone our separate ways, we can still always count on each other but…"

"But what?"

She leans closer towards him, takes his hand, links their fingers together and gives him a smile that messes up his insides. He stiffens at the contact.

"She's still happy that we chose each other," she tells him.

He avoids her gaze and looks at the sakura trees instead.

"Yeah," he mumbles, not caring that what she just said sounded really romantic. Because yeah.

He's happy that she's decided to come with him. He really can't imagine spending one whole year without her or with anyone else.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Okay, so whew. Finally finished this. I was actually hoping to upload this before the new chap came out but as usual, life (and school) got in the way. I know the request called for Gajuvia brotp Gruvia fic, but Gajeel actually doesn't show up here although he does get mentioned and his relationship with Juvia is an integral aspect in this fic.

I think it's a little weird that they never tried to contact each other during the one year time gap so until the new chaps come up with an explanation, I will steadfastly believe that they all tried to contact each other at one point or the other.

As for the Gajeel-Juvia thing, I hope that I made it clear in the fic. But since I love them, I'll still talk about them anyways hahaha So yeah, basically the fact that they could count on each other was a really big deal to them and the two of them always felt like the relationship they had was kind of like a you and me against the world thing. Because in Phantom Lord, everyone was just focused on the job or the money, so they worked with people who would turn on them in a heartbeat if it meant getting the job done.

When PL disbanded he was upset because he lost the one place that accepted him. And then to add insult to injury, Juvia goes and tells him that she's joining Fairy Tail, the very guild that caused PL to dissolve. When he heard that, he felt betrayed and even a little jealous. There she was, moving on with her life and leaving him for her newer, better friends. So yeah, Juvia had to go and talk to him and they have this super long talk. Since then, I've always imagined that Juvia always wanted to make sure that Gajeel knew that she had his back no matter what.

Just in case anyone's wondering, Gajeel missed the letter :)

Okay, hehehehe that's enough rambling from me. Please give me some feedback if you have the time :)


End file.
